Federal courts, not Indian tribal courts, can decide whether federal limits apply to allegations that nuclear-industry activities caused harm on Indian land, the Supreme
Court said on May 3, 1999. Ruling unanimously in a case involving uranium mining on the
Navajo reservation in Arizona, the court said federal law pre-empts tribal courts from ruling on such cases. (Law News Network, May 3, 1999 )

"In 1995, respondents Laura and Arlinda Neztsosie, two members of the Navajo Nation, filed suit in the District Court of the Navajo Nation, Tuba City District, against petitioner El Paso Natural Gas Corporation and one of its subsidiaries, Rare Metals Corporation. The Neztsosies alleged that on the Navajo Nation Reservation, from 1950 to 1965, El Paso and Rare Metals operated open pit uranium mines, which collected water then used by the Neztsosies for a number of things, including drinking. The Neztsosies claimed that, as a result, they suffered severe injuries from exposure to radioactive and other hazardous materials, for which they sought compensatory and punitive damages under Navajo tort law. App. 18a27a. In 1996, respondent Zonnie Richards, also a member of the Navajo Nation, brought suit for herself and her husbands estate in the District Court of the Navajo Nation, Kayenta District, against defendants including the Vanadium Corporation of America, predecessor by merger of petitioner Cyprus Foote Mineral Company. Richards raised Navajo tort law claims for wrongful death and loss of consortium arising from uranium mining and processing on the Navajo Nation Reservation by VCA and other defendants from the 1940s through the 1960s."

"Kerr-McGee milled uranium on the Navajo
Reservation between 1952 and 1973, leasing land for the mill
site from the tribe. Kerr-McGee sold the mill's entire
production to the federal government. In 1995, defendants (the
"Tribal Claimants"), who are members of the Navajo
Tribe and residents of the reservation, filed a complaint in
Navajo Tribal Court, alleging that the Kerr-McGee mill released
vast quantities of radioactive and toxic materials, causing them
injuries. Before the tribal court had proceeded with the case,
Kerr-McGee filed the instant suit."